yakhchal

plural yakhchals

1. architectureA type of icehouse, built mainly in Persia (present-day Iran), that functions as an evaporative cooler, having a domed shape above ground and a subterranean storage space.

   Owners of ice pits (yakhchal) were required to guarantee the purity and hygiene of the water and pits that they used in making ice.

   2019, Amir A. Afkhami, A Modern Contagion, JHU Press, page 151

   2 more examples

   Furthermore, constructions such as the Yakhchal and Abanbar, which were built exclusively to stock water, had to have direct access to water courses.

   2014, Somaiyeh Falahat, Re-imaging the City, Springer, page 155

   Jawaad takes us first to the Kerman Library, a stately old building with beautiful arches that, oddly enough, began life as a textile factory, and then to the parks around the yakhchal or icehouse. Yakhchals are a staggering feat of ancient engineering.

   2016, Zeeshan Khan, Right to Passage, SAGE Publishing, Yoda Press, page 217